This invention relates generally to a device for positioning and supporting a plurality of dowel pins which are utilized in the construction of dental prosthetic devices, and specifically to an improved dowel pin positioner which allows for rapid and non-complex dowel pin positioning. The use of a device for positioning and holding dowel pins which are used in the making of removeable tooth dies are known in the prior art. An example of a device used is the device shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,669,780, issued to Mann which shows the use of C clamps to hold the dowel pins disposed about a supporting rack, the pins being manually fastened by screws to the rack surface. One of the problems with a device such as this is that the C clamps are bulky and are cumbersome when positioning dowel pins over impression areas which require dowel pins be placed close together. The size of the C clamps prevents the use of a maximum number of dowel pins, which could be as many as 16.
The instant invention overcomes the problems of the prior art by providing a dowel pin positioner which utilizes magnetized material on a dowel pin holder supporting rack in conjunction with metal dowel pin holders which are magnetizable to allow the dowel pin holders to be positioned and magnetically connected to the arch-shaped supporting rack. By reducing the dowel pin holder connector complexity and size, the instant invention can employ up to 16 dowel pin holders at one time.